Loose leaf binder



May 16, 1933.

Fig.1.

W. R. BUXTON LOOSE LEAF BINDER Filed April 10, 1930 Fig.2

Fig.3:

INVENTOR. WARNER RBuxmv A TTORNEYS.

Patented May 16, 1933 UNITED STATES WARNER IR. BUXTON, OF LONGMEADOW, MASSACHUSETTS LOOSE LEAF BINDER Application filed. April 10,

This invention relates to improvements in loose leaf blnders. The inventlon, while capable of other uses, is particularly suited for use in connection with small books, as for example, note books, card cases and the like, such as are adapted to be carried in the pocket. It can likewise be employed to advantage in connection with pocket books designed for carrying membership cards, passes, and the like. A pocket book, for any of these purposes, should be flexible and as thin and compact as possible.

The ordinary loose leaf binder is a relatively heavy, bulky, metal affair and therefore is not particularly adapted for the present purposes. A book, using the ordinary loose leaf binder, is substantially as thick at the hinged edge, when empty, as when filled with leaves.

leaves, as desired. Characteristics of the binder are that its thickness is substantially in direct proportion to the number of leaves bound and that the thickness at the bound edge is substantially no greater than at any other point, irrespective of the number of leaves. As a result, the loose leaf book will be very thin if only a few leaves are carried 7 and, as it is loaded up with leaves, its thick ness will increase in proportion to the load and for any given load the thickness of the book will be approximately uniform throughout. At least, there will be no bunching at the hinged edge of the book and no extra thickness there.

The invention has for a particular object the provision of a binder which is detachably and hingedly connected to one of the book covers and free for sliding movement relatively to the other cover.

The invention also has! for an object to 1930. Serial 170,443,191.

provide a binder so engaged with one or both of the covers that it is free to slide relatively thereto, when required.

These and other objects will more particularly appear as the detailed description.

proceeds and will be pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention will be disclosed with reference to the accompanying drawing, in- 6';

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the book when. closed; r

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view drawn to a larger scale and showing the book, when closed; 1 i 7 Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are views taken similarly to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, but showing another way of combining the binder with the covers;

Figs. 7, 8 and 9 are elevational views showing various kinds the binder;

. Fig. 10 is a fragmentary top plan the article shown in Fig. 8;

Fig. 11 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken on the line 11- 11 of Fig, 8; and

view of Fig. 12 is a fragmentary view, taken sim- 80 ilarly'to Fig. 4 and showing a modification in the construction of the binder member.

In each form of the invention, the binder consists of a flexible member, which may of leaves for use with desirably be a thin strap of leather or the like. One such binder is shown at 10 in Figs. 1 and 3 and another at 10 in Figs. 4 and 6. This strap is combined with book covers 11, preferably of leather or the like and hingedly connected at 12. The leaves,

such as 13, 14 or 15 (Figs. 7, 8 and 9, respectively), are mounted on this strap in any suitable way. Each leaf may have a slot 16 (Fig. 7) therethrough near one edge, through which slot the binder strap 1s passed or the leaf may have a T-slot 17 (Fig. 8) in which the strap is received and from which it' may be disengaged independently of the other leaves. 'Various other ways of mounting the leaves on the ,portion 18 forming shoulders 19.

to the cover in a manner permitting con venient detachment. This arrangement provides a means for anchoring the strap to the cover without stitching or the like and a means which is desirable from the manu- .facturers point of View as enabling the strap to be quickly connected to the covers.

Another way of connecting the binder strap to the covers is to simply omit the necked down part and shoulders from the strap and pass the latter through he slits in the same manner, leaving it long enough so'that it will not be pulled out of the slits during any normal movement of the covers.

This is shown in Fig. 12, wherein the strap 10 passesthrough the slits 20 and is frietionally engaged by the strap 21.

A third way-of connectingtho binder to the covers is shown in Fig. 4. This arrangement is-similar to that shown in Fig. 12 except that the strap 10' has ends 40 which are wider than the intermediateportion. Such ends engage the cover straps, such as 21 and 24', and prevent accidental withdrawal of the strap. When the covers 11 are closed the strap 10 can slide outwardly relatively to the straps toward the free edges of the covers but when the covers are opened, the ends or heads 10 will engage the cover straps and prevent strap'lO fron being disengaged therefrom. v

The binder may take various forms, two of which are shown herein, one in Figs, 1 and 3 and the other in Figs. 1 and 6. In the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 3, the binder is preferably creased or scored to provide a definite hinge line 22, very close to the hinge line 12 of the covers 11. This hinge line 22 is located closely adjacent that end of strap 10 which is anchored to one of the covers 11. The other end of the strap extends on an upward slope towards and along the inner face of the other cover and needs to slide relatively thereto when the covers are opened and closed. Such end,the free end,is preferably passed through'slits 23 in the last named cover 11.

and frictionally engaged by the strap 24 which is formed between the slits. The strap 10 is thus lightly held in place and yet is free to slide relatively to the cover,

' when required. With this arrangement, 1

to slope upwardly from its anchored end away from the hinge line 12. As a result, the leaves such as 13, will be forced to assume the stepped or offset relation shown in Fig. 3 and bunching of the leav s at the.

hinged end of the book is avoided.

The construction shown in Fig. 6 in volves a binder 10, which is preferably scored or creased or otherwise formed to provide a central hinge line 25. The ends of the strap 10 are slidably engaged one with each cover. One such end is passed through the slits 20 and engaged by strap 21 of one cover, while the other is passed through slits 23 and engaged by strap 24' of the'other cover. The leaves, such as 13, are mounted on the binder 10 at points between the straps 21 and 24'. Normally, when the covers are closed, the leaves assume the stepped relation, heretofore referred to, except that the leaves are disposed in two series of steps, one on each side of the hinge line 12 of thecovers. The well defined hinge line 25 in the binder 10 causes the latter to bend more readily at this point than any other and, when the covers are closed, the binder 10 bends along line 25 and this line naturally seeks a position in which it is in the same vertical plane as the hinge line of the covers. When the heads 40 are provided the hinge line 25 on strap 10 is not indispensable. The main purpose of the hinge in strap 10 is to aid in centralizing the strap relatively to the covers. The heads 40 will force the strap to become centralized each time the covers are fully opened. I

It should be noted that the leaves 13 in Figs. 3 and 6 are shown as of considerably greater thickness than they actually are. Exaggeration of the thickness of parts was necessary in Figs. 3 and 6 to secure clearness of illustration. As a result, the books there shown are about twice as thick as they should be while the height of the book is the same as it should be. 7

The covers 11 are hingedly connected at 12 and, if of leather or. the like, the hinge connection may consist simply of a score or crease. Where it is necessary or desirable to hold the covers together, I provide a flap 26, hingedly connected to one cover 11, as by a score'line 27 This flap 26v folds over upon the other cover 11 and may be secured thereto by engaging the snap fastener elements 28 and 29, attached one to the last named cover and one to said flap.

The leaves of the book may be anything desired. They may, for example, be sheets of paper or cardboard, as shown at 15 in Fig. 9, or they may be folders or envelopes,

such as shown at 13 and 14; in Figs. 7 and l 8, respectively. The size, material and construction of the leaves will vary according to the purpose for which the book is to be used. It might, for example, be made large enough to serve as a briefcase with folders or envelopes connected thereto but nevertheless serving in an equivalent sense as leaves ofa book. Or, the book may be of pocket size and used as a notebook. I have chosen to illustrate the invention as adapted to a pocket-size book for carrying pass cards, membership cards and the like but it will be obvious that many other uses may be made of the invention as will readily occur to those skilled in the art.

When the book is used for carrying ass cards, the leaves are envelopes or fol ers, such as 13 or 14. These are usually formed from strips or flexible transparent material, such as celluloid, doubled over as indicated, to form front and back walls 31 and 32, respectively, hinged at 33. The cards 34, usually two arranged back to back as shown in Fig. 10, are placed between these walls. Ears 35, formed on one wall as 31, serve to hold the other wall, as 32, against movement on its hinge line 33, but admit of convenient disengagement of the wall 32 from the ears so that the walls may be relatively moved on said hinge line to separate them, when required.

In the case of the members 13 and 14, it is usually desirable to provide each with some sort of stop on one of its walls for the purpose of preventing the cards 34 from dropping so low as to block 011' slots 16 or 17, as the case may be. One way of making these stops is to run a knife through both walls 31 and 32 to form the slits 36, indicated in Figs. 7 and 8, and to then offset the part 37 (within the slits) inwardly so that it lies between the walls 31 and 32 as shown in Fig. 11.

The operation of the binder will be obvious from the foregoing description. One simply withdraws the binder strap 10 or 10 from beneath strap 24 or 24 and places thereon one or more leaves, such as 13 or 15 for example, after which the strap is restored to its original position. In the event that leaves such as 14 are used, withdrawal of the binder strap is not necessary. The leaves are bound in place, loose leaf fashion, by the flexible binder which adds no substantial increase in bulk to the book. The arrangement is also flexible in another sense in that it admits of expansion or contraction of the book to meet individual needs. This feature is especially desirable where the book is used for carrying membership cards. Many people have a large number of such cards. Perhaps, when they are travelling, they wish to carry them all, but when at home they prefer to carry only the one, or the few, which are going to be needed im- 'mediately and'thereby keep the pocket book as thin as possible. TThe present'arrangement enables this tobe readily done: The card containers can be removed and replaced by others with thesame facility as the leaves result if a plurality of leaves were firmly held between the covers, near the hinge line thereof, is avoided. WVhere the bond arti cles are card containers, this feature is of special importance because these containers are generally thicker at the bottom and, if these thick parts were superposed, there would be a considerable increase in bulk. 'By

offsetting these thick parts, this difficulty is eliminated. The fiexiblebinder, of course, is important as allowing a stiff leaf such as a card container, to be swungthrough a wide angle, such as 180 degrees for example, without requiring bending of the leaf itself.

Thus, the invention affords aloose leaf binder suitable for binding "leaves, and

especially relatively stiff leaves, such as cards or cardboard or card containers, in place between flexible covers in a manner such that wide freedom of movement of the individual leaves may be had when the covers are opened and so that removal and replacement of individual leaves may be effected with facility. The flexible nature of the binder also allows some latitude for the leaves to shift between the covers when the same are closed and, in fact, forces enough such shifting of the leaves as to keep the closed book as thin and compact as possible, and ofapproximately uniform thickness.

The invention has been disclosed herein, for illustrative purposes but the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description.

WVhat I claim is:

1. A loose leaf book, comprising, a pair of hingedly connected covers, a binder member having a definite hinge line intermedii ate its ends and slidably connected to each cover and interconnecting the same at points intermediate the hinged and free edges thereof, said hinge line located between the points of connection of the binder member to the Y member slidably connected with each cover and interconnecting the inner faces thereof at a point intermediate the hinged and free edges thereof, and aplurality of leaves slidably mounted on said'member intermediate said points of connection with the covers,

said binder member having a definite hinge line formed therein at a point intermediate said points of connection to the covers.

' 3. A- loose leaf book, comprising, a member folded to form two hingedly connected covers, at least one of said covers having a strap disposed intermediate its hinged and free edges and extending parallel therewith, a flexible binder member having a part extending between the cover and its strap and being so formed as to limit its sliding movement in at least one direction, said member extending across between the inner faces of the covers and free to slide relatively to at least one thereof, and a plurality of leaves slidably mounted on said member.

, 4. A loose leaf book, comprising, a pair of hingedly connected covers, each thereof having a strap thereon disposed intermediate the free and hinged edges thereof and extending parallel therewith, a flexible binder member having its ends slidably engaged one between each strap and the adjacent cover and interconnecting the inner faces of the covers, and means on each end of said binder member adapted to engage said straps and limit the extent of sliding movement of said binder member.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature.

WARNER R. BUXTON. 

